Shamma Friedman
(Shamma Friedman) is a scholar of rabbinic literature and is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS).
Education
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 8, 1937 Friedman received his first formal Hebrew education at the age of ten, and discovered deep Jewish study of text due to the efforts of Jewish Studies scholars who served at his beloved synagogue (Har Zion) and his summer camp (Camp Ramah).[1] He was first exposed to Talmud study by the late Professor Nahum Sarna, who taught a group of students tractate Bezah one summer.[2] After high school, Friedman attended the University of Pennsylvania (BA and Phi Beta Kappa, 1958) and Gratz College (BHL, 1958). He continued his studies at JTS where he was ordained as a rabbi (1964) and received the first PhD in Talmud (1966) granted by the institution with his thesis, “The Commentary of R. Jonatan haKohen of Lunel on Bava Kamma,” under the supervision of Prof. Haim Zalman Dimitrovsky. Among his teachers at The Jewish Theological Seminary, it was Prof. Saul Lieberman, doyen of academic talmudists of the twentieth century, who influenced Friedman most.[3]
Professional Appointments and Institution Creation
Friedman has taught at JTS since 1964 and was appointed to the faculty in 1967. He retired in 2020. In 1973, Friedman and his wife Rachel (neé Swergold) moved to Israel with their four children, where Friedman served as the dean of JTS’s campus in Jerusalem (currently the Schechter Institute ). Friedman also served as the Director of JTS’s Schocken Institute In 1985, he founded the Saul Lieberman Institute of Talmudic Research of JTS in memory of his teacher. The Institute is dedicated to the computerization of Talmud manuscripts and the collection of scholarly bibliography on talmudic passages. In 199(http://www.talmudha-igud.org.il/) which publishes scholarly commentaries to individual chapters of the Babylonian Talmud, written in a style for academic and non-academic audiences. At Bar Ilan University, where he taught in the Talmud Department, Friedman founded the site, Primary Textual Witnesses to Tannaitic Literature. He also founded the online journal in rabbinics, Oqimta .
Research
Friedman has published over one hundred and fifty articles in the field of Talmudic philology and source criticism, and Hebrew and Aramaic Linguistics, as well as seven books. In his research, Friedman has been a pioneer in the writing of critical commentaries to consecutive sugyot to complete chapters of Talmud. Friedman’s scholarship is primarily a study of the talmudic material through an internal comparative approach contrasting literary forms, language and concepts found throughout talmudic literature. In 1977, in his now classic study, “Al Derekh Heker Hasugya,” and following studies he emphasized the almost universal relative lateness of the Aramaic ‘give and take’ stated anonymously in the talmudic sugya.[4]
References
- ^ David Golinkin; et al. (2007). Torah Lishma: Essays in Jewish Studies in Honor of Professor Shamma Friedman. Jerusalem. p. 7.
{{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in:|author2=(help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Golinkin, David; et al. (2007). Torah Lishma: Essays in Jewish Studies in Honor of Professor Shamma Friedman. Jerusalem. p. 8.
{{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in:|last2=(help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Golinkin, David (2007). Torah Lishma: Essays in Jewish Studies in Honor of Professor Shamma Friedman. Jerusalem. p. 9.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Friedman, Shamma (1977). "Mavo Klali 'Al Derekh Heqer Hasugqy'". Mehqarim Umeqorot (1): 283–321.
External links